I'd been looking forward to trying out the BlackBlade Magus with a scimitar and Dervish Dancing for a Skull and Shackles campaign, and unfortunately the DM's girlfriend decided to be a scimitar wielding follower of Saranae, going for some prestige class.
so, I don't feel like using the scimitar anymore, and I'm not sure I feel like being the melee fighter magus at this point.
I was vaguely thinking alchemist, or something, but I'm not sure what really feels worth building. I've no idea what the rest of the party is, just that it's Skull and Shackles and they'll be building while I'm on the way to the game.
any ideas?
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If you were my kids, neither one of you could have the scimitar. Problem solved.
Umm... How's that helpful? I had a character I'd built, she's picked something similar, so I'm changing my concept to avoid upsetting her by overshadowing her.
Level 1 barbarian with Drunken Brute archetype, the rest alchemist. You get to drink your extracts and mutagens as a move action while raging.
For the background just say he was a boy from the wild who got civilized.
That could be fun. I'll reread the drunken barbarian. I'd considered a flaming goblin alchemist. I'm having trouble coming up with something that's fun and vaguely effective.
Goblin Alchemist in ARG gets Rocket discovery, which is bad on its own, but when used with any of the smoke/cloud type bombs can be a pretty good way to increase radius and range with them.
I currently have a goblin alchemist, though he's a vivisectionist beastmorph variety. Uses an Agile amulet of mighty fists to be a dex-focused front-liner, and does pretty good for himself. Also, the Roll With It feat is pretty amusing, especially when you have wings to hold you aloft should you choose to get sent vertically.
Take a monk to show her you don't need any weapon, let alone the scimitar.
This thread seems to be eating posts...
EDIT: Ok, Viking's posted, guess it was just mine.
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I took the Viking concept: ulfen sea reaver barbarian, multiclassed into bucaneer gunslinger. An grenadier alchemist is a fun idea too. Just a straight bucaneer gunslinger would be great for a jack of all trades as well as an inquisitor of the pirate queen. The inquisitor is more of a character you can take in any direction to.
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If you have a concept you like...stick with it?
You and the DM's GF can be bookends of coordination.
If you're looking to differentiate just make sure that your character is a completely different animal.
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Siegemage would be well placed with unseen servants and Skeleton Crew.
Although I'll second the goblin fire bomber.
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Why sacrifice concept? Nothing wrong if with two scimitar wielders in a game. I've never seen any such complications with longswords or composite longbows.
If it's just the weapon, ask if your GM allows you to reskin equipment, and describe your scimitar as some other melee weapon, like a "one handed falchion" or a "sabre".
i would suggest a heavens oracle, they are amazing!
stats of
S 14
D 14
C 14
I 8
W 10
CH 18
heavens oricle lowers your targets HD for illusion spells. so you can color spray 10 hd creatures and with a 6 cha, treat them as if they were 4HD creatures. very powerful for playing a support/ healer/ control/ melee damage dealer. it wont uber nova like a magus will, but you bring more to the table, and at low levels you can coup de grace all day long.
when i played this character it focused on necromancy, and illusion spells. took the meta magic feat to allow my illusion spells to effect undead, and i was very effective at combat.
a gun slinger rogue would also be pretty good and fit in the AP pretty good.
plus , im assuming, you are outdoors a lot which helps another of the heavens oracles abilities
I'd have a word with the dm to allow dervish dance (maybe call it pirate's jig) to work with a cutlass as it has the same stats as a scimitar that way allowing you to play what you like without stepping on the clerics toes.
Elven Curve Blade.
Sure, you have to wear sparkly silk socks and hot pink budgie smugglers because you're probably an elf, but it's got good damage and crit range, and you can finesse with it.
A magus and a cleric are different enough that simply having scimitars doesn't make them much alike. Go ahead and play your magus, if that's what you really want to do.
i second the sea reaver barbarian
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If it wasn't the GM's girlfriend I'd agree with others and say play your Magus. Because its the GM's girlfriend I think it's a good call to step away from the idea.
If there is a players guide for this AP I'd read it and then decide. For me anyway it's easy to find inspiration from the guide.
If you can't pull away from your Magus idea, play it anyhow.
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Ask the GM if you can do some rebuild.
If you bring it forth as not wanting to steal his girlfriend's thunder, I am sure he will allow it.
I would go with an ranged build of sorts, as you will still be a damage dealer, but will not steal her melee thunder.
Maybe Gunslinger, so you can keep your dex focus, and stay within the pirate theme.
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I feel you on the frustration of someone stealing your thunder.
I have an Inquisitor focused on social skills and debuff through demoralization.
After his Druid character's death, a fellow player decided to go Court Bard and focus on the exact same things.
I think he did it to be a passive-aggressive dick though, as we have some PvP history. You can see it here.
If it is just the weapon stay Magus and use something like the Aldori Dueling Sword, rapier or whateve and just stick with your concept. If you are looking for something else to play. Alchemist is an awesome idea. Definately want to go siege weapons and siege weapon engineer for the fun.
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Elven Curve Blade.
Sure, you have to wear sparkly silk socks and hot pink budgie smugglers because you're probably an elf, but it's got good damage and crit range, and you can finesse with it.
????
I think this tells us more about you than it does about elves! : )
I know the feeling of not wanting to tread on the toes of another character. More than once I've lost a character and had to create a replacement, and I always consider this. If there is a monk in the party I wouldn't make another, but if the existing character just had a dip in monk then that'd be different. There's already an archer ranger? Then while I might take a dip in ranger I'd limit it to that.
Once, I visited a role-playing club and was invited to join a game of Basic D&D. I decided to play an Elf but there was already a PC elf, and in Basic D&D Elf was a class as well as a race; elves were basically fighter/mages. Not wanting to tread on her role-playing toes I decided that whatever fighting style she favoured I'd choose something else. For example, if she was a sword and boarder then I'd use a bow or a two-hander or whatever. So I asked, 'What weapon do you use?' She replied (after checking her character sheet), 'I don't know, but it does 1d8 damage!'
I can't tell you what to play, but I heartily recommend that you make a character that you think is cool!
Here is an idea to consider -- she is focusing on a melee fighter with fancy agile moves. Your original concept was basically a gish. All you need to do is focus your emphasis more heavily on the arcane side of your class and the problem is solved. Put your feats after first level into boosting your spellcasting rather then your melee fighting ability and your characters will diverge from each other surprisingly quickly.
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If you still want to play as the magus, you could potentially one-up her by taking two archetypes and being a Spell-Blade-Bound one: have your home-made magic talking sword in one hand, and your magic soul dagger in your other. Instead of a scimitar, you could have a rapier or cutlass and dagger. Make them out of the petrified corpse and soul of your parents, or from wacky scavenged Numerian junk, or whatever the fancy takes you.
Using the same weapon as another player in no way "steps on toes." If you made the same character as her then yes...
Just played a game with a complete whiney b!~&# that had made a magus. Another player joined later with a wizard and this jackass went all "I'm not a special snowflake" and requested the Dm to disallow the new character because that made 2 arcane casters...
Schmuck.
Thankfully the DM told him to take a flying leap and he dropped out of the game.
I'm playing one game that has two Inquisitors in the same party. they are completely separate characters with different gods, motivations, and foci. Don't stress so badly about not being a special snowflake.
I DM'd agame with a Wizard, warlock, and a bard, all high intelligence. The fourth was a fighter. The chemistry was so range heavy, with the fighter taking the lion's share of the melee, that encounters were getting difficult to concoct in a way that was fun for both me and the players. Eventually the WIZARD picked up a sword and contributed. :)
back in the day, nearly everything had a "sword" in basic.
for YEARS in 1E longsword was the weapon to take because every module handed out magic ones.
So two scimitars on different characters? no biggie. In fact before we decided to do CotCT we were going to to LoF, in which nearly EVERY build involved waving a scimitar, (a cavalier, a cleric, a magus and a reflavored ninja)
a good idea for a ship campaign is a Tempest Druid who goes into the Storm Kindler prestige class. can totally screw over other ships.
haha! but Druids use scimitars! ahaha
plus a tempest druid is going to cast spells, not use a scimitar, he is better off with a staff of some sort (i love staff of journeys)
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Umm... How's that helpful? I had a character I'd built, she's picked something similar, so I'm changing my concept to avoid upsetting her by overshadowing her.
Something similar? Because she's also playing a magic user? She probably heard you were playing a Magus and decided she'd be a team player and play a cleric, and decided Sarenrae was a good choice. The she looked at favored weapons, saw scimitar. End of story.
Tired of seeing Dervish Dancer characters all over the place, personally. She probably did you a favor.
hah! THANK YOU martryn!
ask your DM if he/she will let you use dervish dance with an alternative name and alternative weapon. a far eastern tiefling bladebound kensai blade dancer (dervish dance) magus dancing with a wakazashi would have a different visual than a dancing dervish priest from the desert with a scimitar.
ask your DM if he/she will let you use dervish dance with an alternative name and alternative weapon. a far eastern tiefling bladebound kensai blade dancer (dervish dance) magus dancing with a wakazashi would have a different visual than a dancing dervish priest from the desert with a scimitar.
Did this in a Jade Regent game. I hate scimitars so the very nice GM gave me a Ninjato and a renamed of Dervish Dance called Itto-ryu. As long as it all works the same mechanical why not?
Skull & Shackles?
How about a Knife Master Rogue? Take the River Rat trait, and you're not only a great swimmer, but +1 on damage w/your daggers. Buckle swashes, Skill monkey at things, and and get d8s on sneak attacks?
That could be an awful lot of fun for S&S.
Level 1 barbarian with Drunken Brute archetype, the rest alchemist. You get to drink your extracts and mutagens as a move action while raging.
I keep seeing people who say this and I'm pretty sure it's wrong. You can drink potions on a move action without an AoO when you utilize this archetype...but your mutagen and extracts are still always Standard Actions that will invoke an AoO.
She had two character concepts in mind after reading the SRD, the Dawnflower Cleric Dervish Dancer linked to the prestige class and a dragonblooded sorcerer with a massive pyromania complex. We'd done up character sheets for both, and she'd ended up deciding on the sorcerer.
She wasn't happy with being shanghei'd and kept hissing and slashing at everything within range with her claws.
We were all assigned positions on the ship, she got assigned the cook's assistant, and while he was passed out in a drunken stupor, she coup de grace him.
After his body was found, she was knocked unconscious and thrown off the ship, with weights around her legs.
Whereas my Magus worked hard in the bilge on the first day, and proceeded to use prestidigitation to clean the ship on the second day. A 100ft by 30ft vessel took him around 8 hours to clean in 1 ft sections.
Then he cleaned some gear for the quartermaster, before asking nicely for his gear back.
Anyways, with this particular situation, it was the fact that we were both going to be dex-based melee, with scimitars. She'd be getting +2 flame damage from her Flame of the Dawnflower trait while I'd be getting +HUGE bonus from my shocking hand spellstrike, which would have likely resulted in her being annoyed at my similar style character doing way more damage than hers.
Even if there's very clear reasons why they'd be different, I was concerned there were enough superficial similarities that it would upset her.
And I wanted to try out the dex magus, since I prefer dex types to strength types, and I hadn't played a magus before. Dervish dance just seemed like the most effective way to do that, and with the party composition being questionable, I wanted to be able to be effective if it was needed.
I hope that makes things clearer for people.
I definitely liked a few of the ideas from this thread and will be tucking them away for later, especially the human raised by goblin grappler.
Why sacrifice concept? Nothing wrong if with two scimitar wielders in a game. I've never seen any such complications with longswords or composite longbows.
If it's just the weapon, ask if your GM allows you to reskin equipment, and describe your scimitar as some other melee weapon, like a "one handed falchion" or a "sabre".
CUTLASS!!!
Can't get dervish dance til level 2, 2 ranks in perform dance, but I'm thinking gypsy dance or pirate jig flavour to my dervish dance would fit my variasian magus.